Pure Fiction: The Black List Offers New Novelists A New Avenue To Publication, TV & Film Adaptations

Dominic Patten
·4 min read

Over three months before the 20th edition of The Black List hits inboxes all over town, the Franklin Leonard founded platform is broadening its horizon into novels.

“The Black List’s core mission has always been discovering, supporting, and amplifying exceptional writing–providing it with the platform and visibility that it deserves based on its merit,” said Leonard today of the move into fiction with manuscript submissions and connections to the world of adaptation for TV and film. “Expanding into fiction is a natural progression.

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“Right now, there are brilliant writers around the world who don’t have access to high-quality, accountable feedback, and whose work goes unseen for reasons entirely unrelated to how good it is,” the Black List CEO adds. “That’s a massive market failure, and it changes today. I have no doubt that The Black List will find exceptional manuscripts that will become enormously popular published novels and film and television adaptations. Congratulations in advance to the publishers and film and television professionals who find them here. I look forward to reading and watching them when they do.”

Learn more about the Black List’s expansion into fiction here.

Franklin Leonard
Franklin Leonard

With new initiatives like the genre specific  Unpublished Novel Award and a partnership with Simon Kinberg’s Genre Films for a $25,000 award to option unpublished manuscripts, the Black List’s foray into fiction will be led by Randy Winston. “Randy’s resume and reputation in the book world speak for themselves,” Leonard said of the ex-Director of Writing Programs at The Center for Fiction and former Fiction Editor at Slice Literary Magazine, “But the work he’s done since joining the team in February should make absolutely everyone excited about the future. Today’s announcements are just the tip of the iceberg.”

A part of that iceberg will be the Winston fronted Read the Acknowledgments. The series of free and live virtual conversations hosted by Winston will speak with professionals from different aspects of the publishing world on their experiences and education of the industry.

Additionally, when it comes to more initiatives, as Deadpool producer Kinberg says: “I’m a huge fan of what Franklin and The Black List have been able to accomplish, finding new remarkable screenplays that the industry didn’t previously know about. I’m very excited to be part of this new chapter with them.”

If the Black List’s track record to date is any indication, the step into the multiverses of the novel looks pretty steady, and a well arbitrated avenue for both acclaimed books and hot options.

Since the first Black List in  in 2005, more than 440 of the program’s selected screenplays have been produced, grossing over $30 billion in box office worldwide. Turning from the bottom line to the trophy cabinet, Black List movies have won 54 Academy Awards from 267 nominations, including around a quarter of the last 12 Best Picture Oscars and almost half of the last 28 Best Screenplay Oscars. Notable titles previously named in the industry survey include Slumdog Millionaire, Argo, The King’s Speech, Spotlight, Free Guy, Queen & Slim, I, Tonya, All the Money in the World, Bird Box, The Post and Roman J. Israel, Esq.

The Black List is planning on unveiling more fiction partnerships over the coming months. For now, here are the programs the new initiative is offering:

The Black List Unpublished Novel Award

The Unpublished Novel Award will celebrate excellent manuscripts in seven genres: Children’s & Young Adult, Crime & Mystery, Horror, Literary Fiction, Romance, Science Fiction & Fantasy, and Thriller & Suspense. A panel of esteemed judges with backgrounds in book publishing, film, and television will select one exceptional manuscript in each genre to receive a $10,000 grant to support it on the journey to publication. Recipients will retain all rights to their manuscript and will be free to sell them whenever and wherever they please (Note: manuscripts cannot be under contract at any point during grant consideration; self-published novels will not be accepted).

Judges for the 2025 Unpublished Novel Award include LeVar Burton, Kathy Belden, Roxane Gay, Tananarive Due, Meredith Kaffel Simonoff, Emily Nemens, Radhika Jones, Dhonielle Clayton, Brendan Kiely, Lupita Aquino, Nikita Singh, Marie-Helene Bertino, Jennifer Baker, Traci Thomas, Duvall Osteen, Eric Simonoff, Brendan Kiely, Tessa Thompson, Graham Moore, Mollie Glick, Howie Sanders, Gary Whitta, Annie Laks, Mike Flanagan, Ryan Turek, Isaac Klausner, Claire Mazur, Erica Cerulo, with more to be announced.

Submissions for The Unpublished Novel Award are now open on blcklst.com. The submission window will close Summer 2025.

A partnership for unpublished manuscripts with Simon Kinberg’s Genre Films 

The Black List has also partnered with Simon Kinberg’s Genre Films (The Martian, Deadpool, Cinderella) to identify an outstanding unpublished manuscript to receive an 18-month option for $25,000; this alliance encapsulates The Black List’s commitment to bridging the gap between the film and publishing industries.

The Genre Films Manuscript Partnership welcomes manuscript submissions from all genres, with a particular emphasis on character-driven work in the elevated sci-fi, espionage thriller, and action-adventure space. Submitted manuscripts must not be under film or television contract elsewhere.

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